China Set to Tweak Civil Code to Punish Revisions of Martyr Lore

Scratching at the legends around revolutionary heroes stands to become a civil offense in China.

Anyone who slanders or otherwise harms the image of Communist Party heroes and revolutionary martyrs could face legal liability under a clause lawmakers added to draft rules for China’s first unified code of civil law.

Illustrating what kind of heresy authorities have in mind, a Beijing court last year found writer Hong Zhenkuai guilty of libel for questioning elements of “The Five Heroes of Langya Mountain,” a well-known patriotic tale about a group of Chinese soldiers who threw themselves from a cliff to avoid capture by Japanese forces. Two survived after falling onto tree branches, the story goes. In publicly doubting that and other details, the court ruled Mr. Hong had damaged the soldiers’ “heroic image and spiritual value.”

Approving general provisions for a civil code is one of the central tasks facing the annual gathering this month of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament. Proponents of the code, which would be used to settle private disputes, have portrayed it as vital to improving protections for citizens’ personal and other rights.

If, as is likely, the new clause is approved, the code could instead end up undermining the right of Chinese citizens to question their country’s history.

State media reports on Monday said the NPC’s legal committee decided to add the clause after some delegates said comments attacking martyrs of revolutionary lore were harmful to the public interest. The clause would make it a civil offense to “damage the name, likeness, reputation or glory of heroes and martyrs.”

While civil codes have been credited with helping foster civil society, particularly in post-Cold War Central and Eastern Europe, they have also been employed to do the opposite, according to legal experts.

The clause gives Chinese authorities a new tool in an intensifying campaign to root out sprouts of “historical nihilism,” their term for public skepticism around the party’s version of past events.

In the past, the party muzzled critics of official history with censorship, but increasingly it prefers to discredit them in courts of law and public opinion.

Descendants of the Langya Mountain survivors sued Mr. Hong after he wrote articles that cast doubt on core elements of the story, including claims the quintet killed vast numbers of enemy troops before leaping. Despite scrambling four hours to the top of Langya Mountain in an act of defiance and an effort to bolster his case, the writer lost an appeal.

The attack on historical nihilism is part of a vast effort by Chinese President Xi Jinping to clamp down on dissenting views and gird Chinese society against what he sees as ideological threats emanating from Western countries.

Calling the new clause “unacceptable,” Peking University legal scholar He Weifang argued Monday that there was no accepted legal standard for deciding who qualifies as a hero. He also noted that doubts over the historical reliability of some of China’s martyr stories were widespread.

“To uncover the true face of history in the spirit of seeking truth from facts, but to instead face accusations of malicious slander, that is horrifying,” Mr. He wrote in a social-media post, whose authenticity he later verified to China Real Time. “Real gold fears no fire, true martyrs have no need to worry about ‘being smeared.’ All their defenders need to do is present definitive evidence to back their claims. What are they afraid of?”

The press office of the National People’s Congress didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Hong noted that the court verdict against him failed to cite factual errors in what he had written. The new clause would make it easier for authorities to use court cases to publicly discredit critics, he said.

The Langya Mountain lawsuit was one of fewer than two dozen cases mentioned by name in an annual report delivered to legislators on Sunday by China’s chief judge. It was listed under a section detailing courts’ efforts to promote “socialist core values.”

Mr. Hong wrote an open letter to NPC delegates on the WeChat messaging platform on Sunday night, protesting inclusion of the Langya Mountain in the courts’ report. The letter was removed by censors within an hour, he said.

“In the future, historical research will be impossible,” he said. “If you point out the contradictions or holes in what they say, they can use the law to proclaim you guilty.”